League of Exceptionals Vol III
by The Threat
Summary: The world is introduced to a new threat, and a new team needs to assemble to put a stop to it.
1. Chapter 1

Forks, Washington, January 25th 2011:

At a house, almost completely isolated from the rest of town, a brownish white van stops. A door opens, and out comes a man, who's in his late thirties, early twenties, accompanied by a blond woman, who was about a decade younger than him, a black-haired person, who appeared just as serious as that woman, and a couple, who looked somewhat paler in comparison to the other three.

Together, they entered the house. Inside, they didn't encounter a hallway that would have a door to the living room, they just immediately entered a huge room. The eldest person of the group shone a light around, but found nothing.

"It's like Maya said." he spoke, "They can anticipate our arrival."

"But they didn't run away." the male of the pale couple said, I can smell them."

"I small crayon." the woman of the pale couple said.

"Not so surprising." the black-haired man spoke, as he picked up a drawing and shone his light on it.

On the drawing, he saw how the five of them have entered the house, looking around.

"What is it with these people?" the blond woman asked, "I mean, why do people who can see the future always have to draw them?"

"Charlie!" a crackling voice sounded.

The eldest of them, Charlie, replied over his walkie-talkie, from which the voice came: "What is it?"

"They just jumped out the window and are coming at us!" the voice exclaimed.

They hadn't heard it, or the pale couple already ran out of the house, followed by the black-haired man, who apparently could move just as fast as they could. The other two remaining, followed as fast as they could, though slowly in comparison.

Outside, a group of what appear to be savage people, were forcing their way into the van. Or they tried, but were stopped by the pale couple. Showing off their teeth and making themselves look more grotesque, the couple attacked the group, clawing at them, ripping them apart. All until there was only one of them left.

The pale couple held this one female of the group, as Charlie and the blond woman approached. The latter of whom held up a large stake, while Charlie opened the door to look inside the van, where he finds a young girl.

"You okay, Maya?" he asked her.

"Now I know how Grimsdyke must have felt when he first went out hunting." the girl, Maya answered.

Charlie smiled, after which he turned to the woman that they had captured: "Alright, here's how this'll go. Either you say nothing, and Eben and Stella (nodding to the two holding her) will kill you slowly. Tell us what we want to know, and Buffy (nodding to the woman) will kill you faster. Where can we find more of you?"

Whatever she does, she's dead eitherway. Still, she could choose between quick and painless or slow and painful. But as the question was asked, she realized something.

"Edward..." she whispered.

"Edward?" Buffy repeated.

"No!" the female shouted, "You can't make tell you anything!"

This is when the pale man, Eben realized something: "Where's Connor?"

He was refering to their fifth member, of which everyone just realized they hadn't seen him since they left the house.

"There he is." the pale female, Stella, pointed.

In the grass, there lay the black-haired man, Connor, though while earlier he looked as though he could run faster than a speeding bullet, this time he appeared too weak to even stand up. He could barely even take out this small canister, from which he tried to drink.

"What is that?" Charlie wondered.

As everyone else in the group wondered the same thing, this caused enough of a distraction so the female that was held prisoner could easily pull herself free from the other two, and run away. But this is when... whatever it was that Connor drank, it was enough to give him a boost, that had him catch up with the female, and literally punch her heart out.

"Connor!" Charlie shouted, "What have you done? She didn't even tell us anything!"

Connor didn't answer. He looked at his hands, his entire body, and whispered: "This won't last long. Gotta go!"

He ran away from them.

"Hey, where are you going?" Buffy shouted after him and followed.

Normally, Eben and Stella would be fast enough to run after him, but they appeared to be distracted.

"What's wrong?" Charlie asked them.

"There's this strange smell around here." Eben answered.

"I think it comes from that canister." Stella pointed.

As the three of them went to investigate, Buffy returned to the van, and asked Maya: "Do you know what's gotten into him?"

Maya shook her head: "I saw him running away, but that was just before I got attacked."

"And you couldn't tell us?" Buffy couldn't understand.

"Well I'm sorry for being in shock." Maya sounded sarcastic.

"Buffy!" Charlie called.

Buffy joined the other three. Charlie held up a canister, but Buffy didn't pay any attention to that yet.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Whatever made Conner act like that..." Charlie explained, "... I'm pretty sure this here had something to do with it."

Charlie was referring to the canister, at which point Buffy too started to wonder what's so special about it.


	2. Chapter 2

Elsewhere, January 28th 2011:

In a dark room, filled with screen, whirring computers, there were three young men. One of them was sitting in a shivel chair in a somewhat peculiar fashion. If one were to imagine another person, who would just bend his knees so he'd be closer to the ground, so he'd appear to be sitting, but is still more or less standing on his feet, so all he has to do is stretch his legs so he'd continue walking. It was in that position that this young man was sitting on his swivel chair, holding a cup of tea, while stirring his spoon in it, although one can say that he appeared somewhat fascinated by the way the spoon moved. A second young man was lying on the floor, apparently playing with toy robots, airplanes, spaceships and other toys. A third person appeared a little less unusual than the other two, who had this one huge scar on his face, was pacing from one of the room to the next, eating a bar of chocolat. The first young man stopped stirring his cup of tea, put down the cup, upon which he turned to one of his many computers, where he looked upon a screen, which showed five older men in suits, greeting each other as apparently they haven't seen each other in a long time. He pressed a button to speak.

"It's L." he spoke, "Looks like everybody is here. Well then, I'd like to tell you the details of this case."

One of the more frivolous of the group replied: "Sure, sure, go ahead."

A more serious one tried to keep him on track: "Matsuda, get serious."

This is when a screen close to the chocolat-eating one bleeped. He looked at the screen, to see that he received a new message. He opened it, quickly read it, then turned to the one that called himself L.

"This is interesting." he said.

L didn't look at him, but he did turn back to the men on the screen: "Hold on one moment."

This was when the chocolat-eating person knew that L was listening: "I just received a message from Hazmat. He said he was asked to analyse a weird canister that some friends of his gave him."

"And that canister contained the PNRX we've been tracking for months?" the one with the toys asked.

"Judging from his report, yes." he answered.

"Who exactly are these friends of his, Mello?" L asked.

"He says they're vampire-hunters." the chocolat eating one, Mello, responded.

"Makes sense someone in that business would want to make use of that drug." the one with the toys deduced.

"So it's safe to say he may be looking for a refill." L thought out loud, "But with this syndicate, you don't just buy the drug from even your every day drugdealer. You have to know the right people to contact and how to contact them. So much so that this vampire-hunter is bound to stick out."

"So we find him, and we may find this syndicate sooner than we planned?" Mello asked.

"Seems logical." L responded, after which he addressed the one with the toys, "Near, contact your inside man."

This is when this Near's screen bleeped as well. He turned to look, as he too had received a message. He quickly read the message, upon which he addressed the other two: "I don't have to anymore. He's telling us a meeting will take place in Calisota."

"Does it involve the brain behind it all?" L asked.

"No." Near answered, "It's just a drug deal. However, the ones providing it are known to switch sides whenever it suits them best. If we can convince them to work for us, we'd have more men on the inside."

"And have far greater odds of success." Mello deduced.

"The task-force won't like having to go to Calisota immediately after returning to Japan." L said.

Mello shrugged: "They should be used to strange requests from you two by now."

With this, L turned back to his screen, pressed the button with which he addressed the same five men from earlier: "I just got some new info. Based on that, I want you all to go to Calisota."

"What?" one of them shouted, "But we only just got here!"

"We either do this, or risk letting this one slip through our fingers." L told him.


	3. Chapter 3

Duckburg, Calisota, January 29th 2011:

Two members of L's task-force were in a car, on their way to the docks. On their way there, one of the two was particularly uneasy about what they were about to do.

"Why is this happening at the docks?" he wondered, "I mean, it's so cut off from the outside world,..."

"Which is exactly why they'd pick such places, Matsuda." the other replied.

"I know that." the uneasy one, Matsuda, responded, "But..."

"You're just afraid, aren't you?" the other asked him.

"Afraid?" Matsuda sounded almost angry, "Why would you say that, Ide?"

"As a cop, you should be ready for anything." the other one, Ide, explained, "But I suppose, what with the whole "death note" history, and knowing that were not up against just an every day drug, or group of dealers, I don't blame you for feeling nervous."

"Nervous?" Matsuda questioned, though there was a hesitation in his voice, "Chasing after somebody that can kill you just by writing your name somewhere, THAT is something to be frigtened about! This is nothing!"

"Maybe nothing to be frightened about." Ide agreed, "But still enough to make you nervous."

Matsuda couldn't believe what he was hearing, but Ide continued: "A drug that, when taken in, makes its drinker next to invincible."

Matsuda hesitated, but gave in: "I... I guess you're right."

"Besides, L promised us that we'll be assisted for this." Ide added.

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" Matsuda wondered.

Ide shrugged: "It's true that L hasn't always been completely honest with us, but with something like this, I'm sure that he'd keep his promise here."

Matsuda stopped talking here, but he still couldn't help feeling shaky.

The car arrived, at the docks, where Matsuda and Ide got out and ran to where they were told to go. Inside an old building, on the second floor, they had a clear view of what's happening at the pier, where a hooded person was sitting, waiting, and even with the little light that the moon gave them, they could still see that he was shaking heavilly.

"He wouldn't be in withdra..." Matsuda spoke, but almost too loud so Ide had to shush him.

Once Matsuda stopped talking, Ide whispered through his radio: "Mogi, Aizawa, Yamamoto, you all here?"

"Mogi's here." one voice replied.

"So am I, Aizawa." another replied.

"Er... me too." the third one, presumably Yamamoto, answered.

"Look." Matsuda pointed.

Two shadows were closing in on the hooded figure. The latter heard them come, so he turned to look at them.

"Are..." he hesitated to speak.

"Are you Conner?" one of the shadows asked, his voice sounding quite heavy.

"You don't exactly look as tough as you sounded." the other, who didn't sound so heavy, but did have something peculiar about his voice, as though it were a pig talking.

"Look, I haven't had another one in days now, I'm pretty sure I've worried my friends by now, and if I don't get any more, I'll disappoint them gravely."

"Hey, Bebop!" the heavier one started, "That's a first!"

"I heard stories how people are disappointing others by taking these things, not disappointed by not taking them." the other, apparently called Bebop, agreed.

"Will you two just stop beating around the bush and give me my stuff?" Conner became impatient.

Meanwhile, the one called Yamamoto had looked through his binoculars, with which he could identify the hooded person. He looked at his face, then looked at a picture that he had in his pocket.

"That's our missing hunter." Yamamoto spoke, "Though I have to wonder why these drug addicts always wear hoods."

Mogi, who was with Yamamoto, sighed, "I never thought I'd someone more annoying than Matsuda."

"Hey!" Matsuda shouted, in reply to this.

The drug-dealers turned to look around. Clearly, they heard Matsuda shout.

"Now look at what you've done." Ide spoke.

"We've got no choice now." Aizawa then decided, "We've got to move in."

Everyone agreed, so they started shining their flashlights onto the three and raised their guns.

"Police! We've got you sur..." Mogi started shouting, but stopped.

The moon itself only made the two dealers appear somewhat monstrous, but that could mean that they were just a bit larger than the average person. But once they were in the beams of their flashlights, they could be seen more clearly. The reason they looked monstrous was because they didn't look human at all. One of the two looked more like a humanoid warthog, and the other had the appearance of a rhinoceros.

Ide was the first to snap out of this: "Let's get them!"

The other four agreed, so they got out of their hiding place and charged towards the two.

While the two were distracted, Connor saw that the rhinoceros was holding some kind of a bag, which he took from his hands and ran away. The rhinoceros shouted after him, but he that's when the five cops got closer to them. They had their guns raised.

"Hey!" Matsuda just realized, "Shouldn't we be taking that guy too?"

"Shut up, Matsuda." Mogi said to him.

This was an opening of which the rhinoceros took advantage. He bowed his had, so to have his horns point at the cops, and ran towards them. The warthog, meanwhile, took out a machine gun that he had hidden in his coat. While Matsuda himself fainted, something hit the rhinoceros in his shoulder, while the warthog's hands were hit as well.

"Wha... what just happened?" Yamamoto wondered.

"Must be that sniper L hired." Aizawa said.

"Great, since Matsuda failed on us." Ide sighed, looking at his fainted co-worker.

The other three got closer to the two. This is when the warthog tried to take his pain, raised his machine gun, and despite the pain that he felt in his hands, he shot at the three cops. This is when a bullet had hit him in his head, which was the only thing that stopped him from firing. Ide looked at this, stunned by what had just happened. So much so that he didn't notice it when the rhinoceros had found enough strength to get up and impale Ide with his horn. More bullets were fired, but either the bullets didn't penatrate the rhinoceros, or they didn't hurt him enough.

Conner heard several shouts and gunshots, but he didn't listen. He ran as fast as he could, but got stopped somewhere along the way. He didn't see his attacker, so he couldn't have done anything about it. He got up to fight, but didn't see anybody. That's when he got punched in his face. He fell down, but still tried to see his attacker. He looked around him, but still couldn't see anything. This is when he felt something trying to take the bag he stole from those dealers away from him. He tried to hold on closer to it, and that's when he saw what attacked him. He felt something pulling on his bag, but he didn't see anyone pulling. It was like who or whatever was doing this was invisible. This is when he felt a punch in his stomach, which really knocked him out.

"And people called me insane." the invisible person said.


	4. Chapter 4

L's room, January 30th 2011:

L looked at his screen, upon which he saw a room with three people. One of them was Matsuda, the other two were people, a man and a woman, to whom Matsuda wasn't introduced yet.

"So..." he sounded nervous, "... you two were the... help?"

"Matsuda." L spoke through his microphone, "You better return to Japan."

"Huh?" Matsuda couldn't understand, "You mean you kick me out of the task-force?"

"This case is more serious than we previously expected." L explained, "And since you fainted at the crime scene, I can't say you're up for this. Honestly, after your last great case, I expected more from you."

"My last..." Matsuda wasn't sure of what this was about, "You mean the Ki..."

"Yes, that." L interrupted.

"Well, I..." Matsuda was dumbstruck.

"We can't risk you jeopardizing this any further." L continued, "You've taken a risk before, we can't have you do this again."

This is when something came to Matsuda: "Wait a minute, how do you know about that? You weren't there!"

If L could express any emotion, he'd snicker at this. For as far as Matsuda was concerned, the one he knows as L is really Near, as the L himself is supposed to be dead. As such, L could know about Matsuda's screw-up, but Near couldn't.

"It is not important how I know this." L replied, "What is important is that you can't be part of this any more. The next plane to Japan leaves in two hours. You'd better get going."

Matsuda took a deep sigh, then left the room.

The woman, who hadn't said a word throughout this conversation, spoke: "Nice going. We could use all the help we can get."

"True, Keiko-san." L replied, "But you've seen it yourself, your bullets barely penetrated that rhinoceros, and that warthog is still alive from your shot in his head."

"I know that the people in Calisota aren't particularly human..." the man in the room spoke, "... but I didn't think they'd be this strong."

"That's because these two weren't from Calisota." L explained, "They were first sighted in New York City in the late eighties. No one is sure where they came from, although there have been reports of animals escaping the local zoo. All the escaped animals have been accounted for, safe for one rhinoceros and one warthog."

"You think these two are...?" the man sounded skeptic, "I know you're know to think in ways nobody else would, but I didn't think you'd..."

"You are a man who managed to turn himself invisible, having to wear a mask so to have a face." L interrupted, "You of all people should be more open to this, Caine."

The man, Caine, didn't say anything else. The woman, Keiko, then spoke: "So what now? There's only two of us, and this... vague syndicate of yours has human-like animals as lackeys."

"I'd wish Winch didn't let that group go." Caine remarked.

"Caine, what are you talking about?" L asked him.

Caine shrugged: "About a year ago, the head of Group W had assembled a group of people. Apparently, some of his goods had gotten in the wrong hands, so he needed special people to take them back."

"Define special." L ordered.

Caine did exactly that: "One was a wanted criminal, another was a werewolf, another was a... creature from hell, apparently, another was a mass-murderer, who had this stench of a corpse, and there was also a little girl who was genetically engineered. In fact, seeing as I know more about bio-engineering than anyone Winch could think, he hired me so I could study her, and see how and if we can use her, and even find out her weaknesses if she didn't cooperate."

"What?" this last bit enraged Keiko, "You dare do that to a little girl?"

Caine laughed: "You kill people for a living, so who are you to..."

"Don't change the subject!" Keiko exclaimed.

"Talk to you in a minute." L said, after which he turned off his microphone and turned to Mello and Near, "A group of special people. Ring any bells?"

"Yes." Near answered, "In Great-Britain, people have been assembled on several occasions. Similar groups started to emerge in France as well, such as the Mystery Men and the Shadow Men. A trent that's been continued in North-America as well. Justice Society, Justice League, Avengers, Minute Men,... to name a few."

"Funny that Caine should mention the people he mentioned." Mello started, "Remember that giant robot battle in Flanders last year? Here are some pictures that were taken that day."

Both L and Near received the pictures that Mello spoke of. Some were of a group of five, considerable, odd people walking around the streets of Brussels. One of them was a little girl, as Caine described, another was of a woman who looked more like a beast than a human, another of a bulky man with a hockey mask, another man with green eyes (without a pupil and scelera) and another man with just one eye, who didn't appear so unfamiliar to the other two."

"Snake Plissken." L said, "I though the Cleveland heist from two years earlier killed him."

"With Yagami Light having killed many criminals, I'm surprised he's still alive." Near spoke.

"Maybe Yagami just assumed he was dead." Mello said, "Or because he has been pardoned for his crimes, there was no official record Yagami could get his hands on that would draw his attention."

"Or maybe somebody had written in his or her death note that Snake will die under different circumstances, like once he reached a certain age, so if anyone else would write his name later, it won't take effect." Near thought out loud, "After all, thanks to you two, we now know that is possible."

"I've been thinking about what Caine just said." L spoke, "Maybe we too should put a special team together."

"Using these same people again would seem out of the question to me." Mello said, "From how Caine sounded, they used all kinds of dirty tricks to get them to do their bidding. They may not be so helpful even if we asked them nicely."

"There is that one woman we caught that may benefit from all this." Near suggested.

"There's also that English man who tried to take this case away from us." Mello said.

L seemed to think about this: "So if we ask them in addition to these two, that may give us a better chance."

"Right." Near agreed, "I'll contact Watari and tell him to fetch that woman."

"I'll get ahold of that man." Mello added.

L turned to his microphone, switched it on and spoke to the other two: "Stay in town, and meet here again in the morning."


	5. Chapter 5

Wherever L's room was, it was in a building which had an underground facility. An old man in black clothes went down there. The walls were made out of re-enforced steel, and the doors seemed to have special locks. So much so that when one entered it, one would almost think they just entered a huge bankvault. Which is an impression one would already have received before entering, as the door had a keypad where the correct combination had to be entered, a thumbprint-reader, a retinal scanner, as well as voice-activation. Even then, the door still wouldn't open, as a signal would be sent to L's computers, where he's to either deny or allow access. Since it's L's own servant Watari (albeit not the same Watari as the one that served him before his alleged demise), and it was by L's request, through Mello, to go down there, of course access would be allowed, so Watari could enter. Whatever it is that L and his companions kept down there, they clearly had to be sure it won't leave under any circumstances. Watari stepped inside and walked towards the requested destination. He entered a hallway, where there were more doors. At first, one would think it's just a hallway with door, until one took a closer look, and realized that there were doubleglassed windows in the doors, not to mention the dark grey look about them. One almost thought this was a sort of insane asylum, where only the most dangerous were kept. Watari walked towards one door, where he looked through the window. He saw a young woman inside. The woman was sitting in the middle of the room, looking down, until she realized she was being watched, tilted her head to look at who's watching her. She recognized the old man, as he was one of the people who captured her in the first place. She smiled at him, but only briefly, as her smiling face suddenly shifted into a more demonic face, upon which she charged at the door, apparently trying to break it. Of course it didn't work, nor did she appear to receive any reaction from Watari.

"If you're not coming down here to be scared..." the woman spoke, although her voice appeared to echo, "... you must really enjoy just watching me."

Watari couldn't hear what she was saying, as the room was sound proof. Next to the door, there was one microphone and one loudspeaker. All Watari did was take a palmtop out of his pocket, which he place next to the microphone. He switched on both palmtop and microphone. L's logo appeared on the screen, followed by L's own voice.

"Katherine Featherston." L said.

"Well, if it isn't my secretive kidnapper." the woman snarled, "Loser, wasn't it?"

L was used to hearing such remarks by then, but given who and what this woman is, he expected something a bit more mature than that.

"Still as agoraphobic as ever?" the woman continued.

"Fortunately, I have no reason to explain myself to you." L spoke.

"Nor do you have a reason to keep me here." the woman growled this time, "All your attempts to... what was your word again? Extract me from this female, they all failed."

"I have a proposition for you." L said, completely ignoring what the woman just said.

"Oh, 'proposition', another fine word of yours." the woman laughed somewhat menacingly.

"Either you keep this up and I'll never let you out, or you take me more seriously and I may let you go."

The woman quited down, then returned to where she was sitting before.

"I'm listening." she said.

L said nothing. Instead, there was a sudden change of air. The woman started to smell something she never smelled before. And given that she had smelled her own smell for so long, that meant that a new smell was introduced. Once her muscles started to weaken, and she herself had trouble to sit up. It didn't take long before she passed out.

In L's room, L had a question about Near's methods: "You could have gassed her before you said all those things."

Near, who had been pretending to be L the whole time, replied: "True, but this way at least she understands why we did what we did, so to avoid unnecessary explanations."

Ministery Of Magic, London:

A man in his early thirties was sitting at his desk, head laying down on the desk, just when somebody decided to slam his hand on it, causing the man to instantly get up.

"Sleeping on the job, Potter?" this person asked, "We're used to a lot of things from you, but this isn't one of them."

"If you must know, Eliot..." he emphasized the name he spoke, "I wasn't sleeping, I was thinking."

The man, Eliot, didn't show much emotion, still his voice sounded as though he believed him: "I know that your latest job isn't the easiest. Trying to find out who stole that forbidden formula."

"It's not just that." Potter explained, "It's my son's sixth birthday soon, and unless I can solve this case, I might not be able to make it to his party."

"In other words, no pressure." Eliot remarked.

"Right." Potter replied, "So far I haven't found any suspect as to who might have done this. I'm almost starting to think that it wasn't some wizard who did this, but a muggle."

Eliot burst out laughing. Potter was annoyed by this: "I know it sounds a bit..."

"No, that's not it." Eliot interrupted, "It's just that I'm not used yet to the words that are common place to you, like 'muggle'."

"I see." Potter replied, "I keep forgetting that you didn't exactly grow up in the wizarding community."

"Indeed." Eliot said, "While my school wasn't the most inconspicuous of them all, it did cut itself off from the outside world."

"What was the name of that school of yours again?" Potter wondered, "Gruesome... something..."

"Groosham Grange." Eliot corrected him, "Anyway, getting back to your case, so you think regular people stole the formula?"

"Yes." Potter continued, "I mean, why not, there are two muggles that I know of who found out about us, and yet another who... well, didn't know about us, but does seem to have access to magic."

"Speaking of which, I've only just seen that man down in our dungeons." Eliot started, "But he still won't say anything."

"This is all getting..." Potter started, but got interrupted.

A flying post-it arrived on his desk, which he picked up to read: "Some... thing is trying to reach you. Floo room."

Potter read this, upon which he got up, curious about what this 'thing' is that it mentions.

"What is it?" Eliot asked.

"I hope to find out soon." Potter answered.

A few minutes later, Potter arrived at the Floo room, in which there were many fires burning. On of them, for some reason, had the letter "L" coming out of its fires. Potter got a little startled by this. This "L", whoever he is, happened to be one of the muggles he mentioned who knows about the wizarding community. Potter sat himself next to that fire.

"You wanted to see me?" Potter asked.

"Yes." L answered, upon which text appeared over the letter, "I want you to come to this address by tomorrow."


	6. Chapter 6

L's room, January 31st, 2011:

On his screen, he saw how the woman named Keiko was taping the woman from their basement to a chair. Knowing what this woman can do, one could never be too careful. Meanwhile, Caine was connecting her to some kind of an I.V., which had some kind of sedative in it, so to keep her relaxed. Not enough to have her unconscious, but enough to keep her docile, or at least as docile as one can be kept. While they were still busy, the window's curtain moved, in such a manner that one would think someone walked in, but no one saw anything moving.

L turned on his microphone: "Nice trick, Potter, but I think we got enough with one onvisible person."

Hearing this startled both Caine and Keiko. This is when they saw a man appearing out of nowhere. They didn't know how, but somehow, this man had some kind of robe that would render its wearer invisible.

"Wow." Caine said, "Why didn't I think of trying to make fabrics invisible?"

"Who..." Keiko tried to ask the more obvious question, "... what are you?"

"First of all..." Potter decided to ignore those two, "... who are you, why aren't you here and how did you know it was me?"

"Hm..." Caine was surprised, "... he didn't even notice we got a woman in restraints here."

L switched off his microphone: "It took me a while to get the last task-force to fully trust me. I really hate having to start from scratch."

"Maybe you should've kept Matsuda there after all." Mello suggested.

"No." Near disagreed, "He would only make things worse."

L switched his microphone back on: "I am sure you have a lot of questions, but unfortunately, neither you or I have the time to answer all of them."

This is when the taped woman started to moan, which meant she was regaining consciousness.

"Good." L said, "You're awake."

The woman looked at what position she was in, then sighed: "Oh, you must have a fetish for this."

Everyone in the room was surprised to hear her talk, but Keiko was the first to actually speak: "Did her voice just echo?"

"Is she possessed?" Potter asked.

"I can see why you'd want her like this, but..." Caine couldn't understand.

"Everybody, meet Katherine Featherston." L said.

"Katie will suffice." the woman, Katie, spoke.

"Although it's indeed not actually Katherine speaking, but the demon inside her claimed that name anyway." L continued.

Potter didn't seem to care much about that: "Well, I should tell the Ministry and..."

"If I could find your little community, I would surely have found means to try and help her myself, Potter." L told him.

"You know, my late husband was more open than this." Keiko suddenly said, "If you keep being so mysterious about everything..."

"If you people will let me talk in the first place, you wouldn't need to ask all these questions." L reminded her, "But I'm sure before we get to that, we would all like to know each other a little better."

"Yes..." Katie hissed, "That over there is L. Agoraphobic, xenophobic, fetishist, and schizophrenic."

L, again, turned off his microphone: "Either she really thinks I'm schizophrenic, or she realizes I'm not the only person here."

"Either way, if these people would even start to think there's more than one of us, they might start having their reasons to not take any of us seriously." Mello thought out loud.

"Even when we have something to offer her, she'd still try to fight us." Near said.

L turned back to his screen, where people looked more surprised that Katie was saying what she was saying, but weren't exactly taking heed of what she was saying.

L switched on the microphone: "That's enough, Katherine."

"That took you a while." Katie snickered.

"And you are?" Caine addressed Potter.

"I'm sorry." Potter stuck out his hand to shake Caine's "I'm Harry Potter, auror for the Ministry of..."

"Auror?" Caine sounded surprised as he interrupted, all the while taking off one of his gloves, "There's a new word."

Once Caine removed his glove, he revealed... nothing. That is, where one would expect to see a hand, there was nothing. Somehow, that nothing managed to grab Potter's hand and shook it.

"Sebastian Caine. Bio-engineer, and often called the Hollow Man." Caine said.

Although Potter himself had used a cloak that rendered him invisible, he had never seen anyone whose entire body in and of itself was invisible.

Keiko, meanwhile looked at Potter up and down. She didn't know what it was exactly, maybe it was that lightning-shaped scar on his forehead, maybe it was something else, but there was something familiar about him.

"Haven't I seen you somewhere before?" Keiko asked him.

Potter himself seemed surprised: "I don't know."

"There are some similarities between him, and the character that Kathleen Murray described in her fantasy novels." L explained.

"Kathleen?" the name seemed to sound familiar.

"I don't read much." Keiko said, "In my bussiness, I don't have time to read."

"And what exactly is your bussiness?" Potter asked.

"I'm an assassin." Keiko answered.

This raised Potter's eyebrows: "What is all this? I thought you were going to help me find that stolen formula, and you're asking me to work with somebody who kills for money, a man who can't be seen at all times and a possessed woman?"

This started a bit of a discussion among the four. This caused L to turn off his microphone again, so to talk to his companions.

"This is worse than I anticipated." L said.

"We could always try to bring Winch's team together." Mello suggested.

"Unfortunately, that would waste too much time." Near reminded him.

"I wish my old gang were still alive." Mello whined.

"Let me try something." Near spoke.

He pressed a few buttons. It didn't affect any of the equipment in L's room, but the speakers in the other room started to screech.

With this, L turned back to his microphone: "So... Mr. Potter, Mr. Caine, Mrs. Smiley, Miss Featherston..."

"Smiley?" Potter seemed amused as he turned to Keiko, "Is that your name?"

"It was my husband's name." Keiko sounded indignant.

"Now that I have your attention..." L spoke, "Can we finally get to bussiness?"

"If it means me getting out of here, gladly." Katie spoke.

"Okay with me." Caine said.

"I was almost thinking you're looking for an excuse to not pay me." Keiko whined.

"So, what brings us all here?" Potter asked.

If L would ever express any real emotions, he'd sigh of relief. This is when he finally started to tell them what this is all about.


	7. Chapter 7

"How many of you have ever heard of Astérix?" L asked them.

Most of them show vague looks, as the name indeed meant nothing to them. Only Potter seemed to know: "Asterix? Don't you mean Cattafix?"

"First of all, you mean Panoramix. Cattafix is his English name." L corrected Potter, "Second of all, in order to understand what Panoramix is about, one must know the legends of Astérix."

"And who is this Asterix?" Keiko sounded impatient.

L switched off his microphone: "Although I say 'Astérix', they keep pronouncing it as 'Asterix'. And yet Keiko-san is the one losing patience?"

"Not everyone is as patient as you are." Near said.

L switched his microphone back on: "Astérix was a French hero, from around 50 B.C., who was able to take out an entire Roman army single-handedly, thanks to a special potion that was brewn by Panoramix."

"Sounds to me like they even had steroids before Christ." Caine joked.

"As a matter of fact, you're not too far off." L replied, "This potion was so powerful that it would make whoever drinks it invincible."

"But you did just say that it's a legend, right?" Keiko spoke.

"Legends have their way of being true..." Katie hissed.

"Correct." L said, "These past few months we've been tracking a drug syndicate that's been distributing a specific type of drug, of which its effects resemble that of Panoramix's potion."

"I knew it!" Potter exclaimed, "I already thought that those who stole the formula from our minestry must have been muggles."

The word muggle is what had both Keiko and Caine raise their eyebrows. Only Katie appeared to know that word, as she laughed: "Muggle? You magicians still use that word?"

"Wait, I don't understand this." Keiko suddenly realized something else, "Why would a drug dealer make drugs that would make people invincible? I mean, what if these people were to some day use that power against their dealers?"

"They wouldn't do that." L explained, "Way back when, Astérix only used the potion when it was absolutely necessary. But in this world, people hardly ever practice restraints, and would use it whenever they feel like it. Eventually they'd become far too dependable on the potion, need more and more of it each time, and if they were to attack their dealers, they'd pretty much attack the only people who can provide them more."

"I see." Keiko understood.

"Wait a minute!" Caine suddenly realized something else, "Do any of these dealers use some themselves?"

"That is possible." L answered.

"Then why am I still here? There's no way I can face a super-strong rhino." Caine complained.

"You're an invisible man, you technically don't need to face anybody." L assured him, "No matter how strong they may be, they still need to see what they're fighting."

"Excuse me, a rhino?" Potter couldn't understand.

"The last dealer we met was a humanoid rhinoceros." L explained, "Which brings us to the next problem."

Everyone was all ears as L explained: "That rhinoceros, as well as his accompanying warthog, they're known to be very dangerous criminals, who have been associated with the Foot Clan in New York."

"So?" Potter asked.

"The Foot Clan was a dangerous criminal organization." Keiko explained, "They used ninjitsu techniques to commit their crimes."

"Indeed." L continued, "If they had these two criminals on their side, it is possible they have that Clan as well. Or least what's left of them, as their leader died long ago."

"How can you be so sure about that?" Caine questioned, "I'm supposed to be dead myself."

"I'm fairly sure he's dead." was all L said, "But if not the Foot Clan, they may still have other people on their side who are just as dangerous."

"In either case, we could use all the help we can get." Potter deduced.

"So that's why you let me out." Katie hissed, "Just so I'd help you stop people from becoming stronger than you."

"Since you brought it up yourself..." L replied, "... here's what I had in mind. As you're inhabiting another person's body, it must be difficult for you to keep her from forcing you out, shutting out her thoughts, listening to her grieve about her boyfriend whom you murdered,..."

This is where it started to sound interesting for Katie: "What are you saying?"

"If you were to take some of this potion yourself..." L started.

"What?" the other three shouted in unison.

"The effects of the potion are only temporary." L explained, "However, if you were to take it, it may give you enough strength to finally fight whatever's left of Katie out of you."

"Wait a minute!" Potter sounded angry about this, "You're suggesting to let this demon completely take over that woman?"

"I'm only giving her a reason to want to cooperate with us." L explained, "Whether she'll actually take any will have to depend whether or not you stop her, or whether or not she's cunning enough to take some without any of you noticing. So what will it be, Miss Featherston? Are you up for another challenge?"

The demon that possessed Katie's body didn't need to think much about this. It remembered how about five years earlier, it had tried to drive Katie to insanity. In doing so, it weakened her mind, so she'd be less resistant to anything invading her mind. It left a clue, so they would look up what other people did when the same demon tried to invade other minds, so they wouldn't use an exorcist to cast him out. All this so he could have a physical body. And it worked. Unfortunately, the mind it has invaded had been screaming for help ever since. Until the moment it killed her boyfriend. Ever since, she has tried to cast the demon out herself, so she could kill herself, as she can't live without her boyfriend. She may think he's a bit of an asshole, but he was still her soulmate, or something like that. The demon got tired of hearing this, and on top of that if this woman indeed kills herself, the demon would have to find another body to try and invade. So it would be in its best interests if it would accept L's proposal.

Once everything was thought through, Katie nodded: "I accept your proposal."

"Then those tapes aren't necessary anymore." L told them.

"Oh no!" Caine protested, "I'm not gonna let something like that on the loose just yet!"

"No need to worry so much." Potter said.

"Why shouldn't I?" Caine asked him.

With that question, Potter took something out of his pocket. To the casual on-looker, it would look like just a stick, but when Potter waved it in front of the window's curtain, chanted "sectumspectra", it caused a tear to appear in the curtain, along with a huge crack in the window behind it.

Katie wasn't intimdated by that: "You would do that? And risk hurting this woman?"

Keiko seemed to agree: "Not exactly very threatening. Also, what would you do if your wand broke?"

Potter hadn't thought of that. And if this demon is as dangerous as she is made to seem, he needed to take that into account.

"In that case, I'd better get some help." Potter said, after which he made little distance between himself and the other three, "Although I hate doing this, but I'm in a hurry."

He waved his wand again, upon which he vanished into thin air with a loud bang.

Everyone present was surprised to see this, safe for Katie who appeared amused, and L and his companions, who knew he could do this.

"Shall I ask Watari to bring some clean clothes for Featherston to wear?" Near asked.

"You don't even have to ask me that." L answered.


	8. Chapter 8

Potter made himself disappear from the room he was in, only to reappear at his desk at the Ministry of Magic. There, he met with his co-worker from before.

"Apparition." Eliot laughed, "We don't see you do that every day."

"I don't have time for jokes." Potter told him, "I need your help."

"Help?" Eliot questioned, "I'm sorry, Harry, but I've already got enough things to do..."

"Forget about them!" Potter interrupted, "Remember that formula I mentioned earlier? I was right, a muggle did steal it. And unless we hurry, he may do some serious damage with it."

"I'm not saying I wish I couldn't help." Eliot said, "But I got too many things to do which also take priority. So even if I help you prevent... whatever this damage is you're talking about, it could mean jeopardizing something else. I'm sorry, but I can't help you."

In his rage, Potter would have kicked his own desk. But that's when something else came to mind: "That man you captured."

"He still hasn't changed his story." Eliot said, "Why?"

"Take me to him." Potter asked him.

Eliot looked at him in disbelief: "Why would you want to see him?"

"No time to explain, just take me to him." Potter replied.

Eliot couldn't quite understand. But he shrugged it off and lead Potter to where he requested.

Down in the Ministry's dark dungeons, which still give Potter the creeps despite the fact that he's been down there on several occasions, he and Eliot were walking to this one cell. From what Potter had heard about this man, they had no real reason to send him to Azkaban, the maximum security prison, but they had no reason to let him loose either. So the Ministry's dungeons were the only other option left. This one cell had the appearance of a large cube, wherein there was a bed, a muggle-toilet, it had all the seeming of a regular prison, if it wasn't for the fact that the cube was made out of pure energy. On the bed, there was a man, dressed in a black suit, using what looked like a green trench coat as a blanket. Potter coughed so to draw this man's attention. The man stood up. He wore a mask that covered his face, and had the same color as his coat.

"A new guy." the man sneered, "There are only so many times that I can tell the same story to so many people. Why don't you just keep a recording if you keep forgetting it so easily?"

Potter knew this was meant as an insult, but he didn't let that get to him: "Are you the one who calls himself the Green Lantern?"

"Who's asking?" the man, or the Green Lantern, asked.

"My name's not important right now." Potter replied, "What is important is that you hear me out."

"Hear you out?" the Green Lantern didn't understand, "That's new."

Potter didn't know all the details of what's been going on when this man had been interrogated, so he doesn't always understand the man's reactions. But he continued anyway: "I understand that you keep telling the same story. How you found the magical ring first, and found the technical ring later."

Though there was a hesitation, the Green Lantern replied: "Yes."

"And you expect us to just take your word for it?" Potter asked him, "We allowed the first Green Lantern to keep the ring for himself, because he had proven that he wanted to fight crime with it, and nothing else. A few years ago, we see you using it, only to find out later that it's first owner is dead."

"I told you people already." the Green Lantern sounded furious, "I found him dead, and I took his ring, because it wanted me to take it."

"But then, coincidentally, you also found the other Green Lantern's ring."

There was that hesitation again, but the Green Lantern persisted: "How many times do you people want to hear me say it?"

"Look, for all we know your story is only partly true, or not at all." Potter explained, "Don't you think it's a bit of a coincidence that you just so happen to find both rings?"

"And for that you capture me." the Green Lantern lauged, "Because of my rings, you can't get close enough to take them away from me, so instead you create this barrier from which I can't escape unless I give you the magical one."

"It's like this..." Potter explained, "... from what my co-workers tell me, they have no real reason to trust you, so they can't know for sure that you should have that ring. Which is why I want to make a deal."

Both the Green Lantern and Eliot looked surprised at that, but it was Eliot who spoke first: "A deal?"

"What is it?" the Green Lantern showed interest.

"I got this job to do, for which I can use all the help I can get." Potter explained, "If you help me, I will be witness to how you use that ring, which can help in our ultimate decission as to whether or not we will allow you to keep the ring or not. How does that sound?"

"Wait, are you going to do something the Ministry wouldn't approve of?" Eliot asked.

"What other choice do I have?" Potter asked in return.

Eliot had to think about this, and realized that if this Lantern was no longer in custody, that would be a load of weight off his shoulders, so he decided: "I'll go check if nobody's watching."

"Wait." Potter stopped him, "He must agree first."

The Green Lantern was thinking this through. On one hand, it could be a trap, so to lower his guard, so they could take the ring away whenever they saw an opening. On the other, this may an opportunity. This way he could prove he doesn't want to use the ring for any evil purpose, so these people would finally stop following him. Still, he couldn't take any chances. With his technical ring, he created a forcefield around him, just in case.

"This better be worth it." the Green Lantern spoke as he looked back at Potter.

* * *

Note: although the Green Lantern is property of DC Comics, the character that is the man behind the Green Lantern's mask is mine.


	9. Chapter 9

L's room:

From his secret room, L could see how Potter returned, along with another person. Since his clothes were black and green, and he had that special symbol on his chest, it wasn't that difficult for anyone to deduce that this someone else was the Green Lantern. As did everyone else.

"You know the Green Lantern?" Keiko asked.

"No." Potter answered, "He's just someone..."

"Someone you arrested because you felt like it." the Green Lantern interrupted.

"You got yourself arrested?" Katie seemed to think this was funny.

The Green Lantern made a face as he heard Katie's voice echo, but shrugged it off: "So I understand you need help catching these bad guys."

"It doesn't bother you that her voice echoes?" Keiko asked him.

"Let's just say mister Auror here briefed me... briefly on you people." the Green Lantern explained.

"I didn't realize the Green Lantern would tell stupid jokes." L spoke, "But you're not the original Green Lantern, are you?"

The Green Lantern heared that, but he didn't know where it came from, until he turned to look at the computer screen, which had a large letter "L" on it.

"Is that this L character you mentioned?" the Green Lantern sounded amused, "I'm surprised you all work for a voice on a computer."

"He may be just a voice." Cain explained, "But he pays well."

This made the Green Lantern raise his eyebrows: "Pays well? You're all in it for the money?"

"Who's in it for what is not important." L spoke.

This caught everyone's attention, so L knew he could continue without any further problems: "We just received test results from the drugs we had confiscated."

"You mean Cattafi... I mean, Panoramix magic potion?" Potter asked.

"Yes." L explained, "And it's worse than we thought."

Everyone looked at each other, wondering how it could possibly be worse.

"Some of the ingredients seem exactly what you'd expect from a druid, but we found some traces that would suggest modern medicine as well."

"What are you saying?" Keiko asked, "Are they trying to make a new pill or something?"

"If they are, I am not sure what it's supposed to cure." L responded, "However, it would appear that, unlike what Panoramix used to brew, this is less stable, and would destroy you."

"The epitome of cruelty." Caine remarked, "Making people feel stronger while slowly killing them."

"Our last surprise got four task-force members killed." L reminded them, "And seeing what the stakes are, we cannot afford any surprises for our next trap."

"Hang on!" the Green Lantern started, "You're sending us to our deaths?"

"The last task-force didn't have people like yourself in it." L explained, "They didn't know magic, only had a cop's training instead of that of a hitman, they didn't have any of your abilities."

"You forget to mention that these people have humanoid animals on their side." Katie hissed.

L was about to lose patience: "Using an airplane would be too conspicuous and a waste of time, so you'll have to use alternate means.

The Green Lantern showed his rings: "Not a problem."

"Can't we just do your disappearing act again?" Keiko asked.

"It takes a lot from me to have to transport all five of us at once." Potter answered, upon which he walked towards the window, where he had appeared before, and picked up something that looked like a broom, "And with this, I might be able to carry just one of you."

The Green Lantern seemed to have found a solution: "I think I know what we can do."

"Which is?" everybody asked, almost inunison.

"Just tell us where to go, L." the Green Lantern told the computer screen.


	10. Chapter 10

L explained to everyone where exactly in Japan they had to be. Upon the explanation, an old man, namely Watari, had entered the room, who gave them a palmtop computer, of which its use was also explained by L. The same Watari had released Katie from her binds and gave her some clean clothes, so she wouldn't have to run around in her patient-esque clothings.

Potter held his broom between his legs as he walked towards the window and jumped out. To the surprise of everyone, safe for the Green Lantern and Katie, Potter was able to fly on his broom.

"That's an old trick." Katie smirked.

"If you're so powerful yourself, why don't you use your powers?" Keiko snapped at her.

Katie grinned, just when Potter spoke: "Mrs. Smiley, you're the lightest of us, maybe you should ride with me."

Keiko looked through from Potter to the ground. It didn't seem particularly safe, but that's when she remembered: "The same reason why I became an assassin."

She stepped out of the window and climbed on Potter's back.

"So... what are you gonna do?" Caine asked the Green Lantern.

The Green Lantern raised his right hand, which bore the technical ring, with which he allowed Cain and Katie to be inside some kind of green field. With this, he raised his left hand, that bore the magical ring, which he used to fly, carrying the field and everything inside it with him. Caine gasped at the sight of his feet lifting off the ground, while Katie merely grinned at this.

"Interesting rings you got there." Katie spoke.

The Green Lantern ignored her: "Where to?"

Caine looked at his palmtop. It had a map of the world, as well as a compass, so he could see which direction to go to. Their destination on the map was marked as a bright red dot. A Japanese island called Okishima.

"That way." Caine pointed, which the other two followed. The entire flight seemed so surreal, it made Caine hesitate for a moment, but after a while, he found the courage to say: "A little more to the left."

The fliers did exactly that, to which Caine said: "Good! We're heading in the right direction."

"It just occured to me..." Keiko spoke, "I'm of Japanese descent myself, first my husband and now my, but both have taken me to many places, but I've never actually been to Japan myself. And now that I'm finally going there, I won't have much time for sightseeing."

"That depends on how you define sight-seeing." Caine replied.

"How do you mean?" she asked in return.

"I often get these names mixed up, but unless I'm mistaken..." Caine answered, "... this is the island where the Program was last held."

"The Program?" nobody else in the group knew what this was about.

"It's something that the entire Republic of Greater East Asia had set up." Caine explained, "Through some kind of lottery, the government would select a group of kids and forced to kill each other. They pick a battleground, evict everyone from the field, so the kids would have a place to fight. And this island is the one where it last took place."

"And the government would allow for something like this to happen?" Potter sounded disgusted.

"As long as there are people in power, more disgusting things will happen." the Green Lantern spoke.

"Anyway, I can understand why this drug syndicate would want to have a meeting on this island." Caine continued, "When the Program was last held, everyone was killed. Not just the kids, but the government officials monitoring the whole thing as well. This way, there was no one to collect the dead bodies, or to contact the government of how and if it ended. Even the island's previous inhabitants were too afraid to return, so it's been abandoned ever since."

"Making it the perfect place to do business." Keiko deduced.

"How do you know all this anyway?" the Green Lantern wondered.

"That bit about the Program? From the news." Caine answered, "The rest, it would look like L left some information about the island here."

"A bit schadenfreude, isn't he?" Katie seemed to be amused by this.

"Or he just thought that info could be usefull to us somehow." Potter realized.

"We'll see when we get there." the Green Lantern spoke, "We still flying right, Caine?"

Caine looked at his map: "We are. So far."


	11. Chapter 11

Okishima, Japan

Once they arrived on the island, it was late at night. That is, when it was morning in the US, it was night in Japan. Keiko used her night vision goggles, with which she could look around the island. This while Potter himself lit up his want, so he could see things for himself. The houses were almost falling apart, left and right there are still visible traces of explosions and gunshots, and at several spots, dead bodies could still be found.

"Looks like this is a great place to perfect place for a drug deal." Keiko deduced, "An island that hasn't been used, enough places to hide, cut off from everybody,..."

"And of course the cover of darkness." Caine realized

"It was noon when Potter picked me up." the Green Lantern stated, "Morning when I arrived in the US, and now it's night here in Japan. I'll never get used to these timezones no matter how much I travel."

This is when Katie started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Potter asked her.

"Only that we're supposed to surprise these people." Katie answered, "And with all the light you're making..."

Potter soon enough realized what he was doing, so shut off the light of his wand.

"That won't do." Keiko said, "Even in the darkness, we're sitting ducks now. We better split up, hide, and wait for our guests to arrive."

"Split up sounds like a nice idea..." Katie hissed.

"Oh no!" Potter disagreed, "We can't let her out of our sight."

Katie sighed: "You do know that I'm doing this for my own reasons, so why would I run away?"

"No need to worry." Caine said, as he suddenly started to take off his clothes, "I have my own ways to hide."

Since the rings gave the Green Lantern the power to see in the dark, he was the only one who could see how Caine took off his clothes, and therefor was also the only one to see, or rather not see, the invisible body that Caine's been hiding. But while Caine himself may be invisible, his clothes weren't. The Green Lantern pointed his ring at Caine's clothes, and used it to lift them up.

"What are you doing?" Potter asked.

"If our bad guy will see this, he'll think there are people here." the Green Lantern replied.

"Enough time wasted." Keiko said, "Hide!"

As Keiko said this, everyone went their own separate ways, to do exactly as she said. But as they were doing so, Potter couldn't help but notice that the Green Lantern was doing something under his coat. He wasn't sure what it was, what with the darkness and the little light that the stars provided, but it appeared as though he was putting something away.

February 1st, 2011;

By the time the first boat arrived, it was already past midnight. Whoever was on this boat, weren't making much of a fuss at first. However, the only two members who could actually see anything in the dark, saw one man with a typically large South-European mustach, accompanied by two others, who wore clothes similar to what they've seen Potter wear. Only the South-European man wore something on his head to see in the dark himself, so he could point to the other two where they were to find lampposts, or what was left of these lampposts. The two shrugged most of the time, and there were moments when the South-European seemed to lose patience with the two. At this moment, there was no way of knowing whether these were the dealers, or the clients, so there was no reason for the five to come out.

Some time after they arrived, another boat arrived. This time, all its passengers and/or crew were all Japanese. They carried flashlights, with which they found their way to the rendez-vous. Once they arrived, the South-European gave some kind of signal to his companions, who both then raised their wands, causing the lampposts to start shining lights. This startled the Japanese people at first, but were soon calmed down when the other three showed themselves.

"Kamon-san. Kitano-san." the South-European said.

"What's the big idea!" one of the elder Japanese men shouted, "Surprising us like this!"

"Now, Kitano-san..." another one of the elders spoke, "... don't be so harsh. This must be the man that'll help rebuild the Republic of Greater East Asia. Mister Nepomucenos, wasn't it?"

The South-European, or Nepomucenos, smiled: "So you're Kamon, then."

"Don't talk as if you already know us!" Kitano shouted, as he was about to attack Nepomucenos.

But Kamon stopped him: "Ohoh! If he helps us, that's good enough for me."

"IF he helps us." Kitano reasoned, "But it's not because he's actually here, that it means he's got what we need as well."

"Of course..." Nepomucenos replied, almost exagerating with his accent, "... of course. Crabbe. Goyle."

He was referring to the two who had accompanied him, but the mere mention of their own names had made them just look at their boss, but nothing else.

"The stash!" Nepomucenos reminded them, "Show them our stash!"

Both mouthed an "oh" before they turned to pick up two boxes and showed them to Kamon and Kitano.

Nepomucenos sighed: "Even Bebop and Rocksteady were faster than this. Why did they have to desert us..."

Crabbe and Goyle placed the boxes in front of the two clients, upon which they opened them, to show them that inside, there were bottles, filled with a substance none of them have ever seen before."

"Marvellous!" Kamon exclaimed, "There it is at..."

"Wait!" Kitano interruted, "How do we know it does what you claim it does?"

"I thought you might ask." Nepomucenos replied, upon which he searched his own pockets, pulled out a small bottle, that contained the same type of substance as the bottles in the boxes. He opened the bottle and spilled its contents over a nearby plant. Doing so caused the plant to grow larger.

"Satisfied?" Nepomucenos asked.

Upon his asking, some of the bottles exploded. This startled everyone nearby, but the strangest part happened when some of the bottles appear to fly out of their boxes, only to be dropped on the ground. Neither Nepomucenos and his companions, or Kitano and his group, knew what was happening. Particularly Crabbe and Goyle appeared dumbstruck.

"Don't just stand there!" Nepomucenos shouted at them, "Do something!"

This shook them awake, so they raised their wands.

"Expelliarmus." somebody shouted, which caused the wands to fall out of Crabbe and Goyle's hands.

Once they realized what happened, Crabbe and Goyle looked up again, to see who just took their wands out, and exclaimed in unison as they recognized him: "Potter!"

"What have you two been up to recently?" Potter asked them quite frivolously.

This is when Kitano grew impatient and ordered everyone: "Get them!"

His group shouted in agreement and charged towards everyone else. They did so, until they were startled by something else jumping in between. It had the appearance of a young woman, although her face seemed to be distorted to a somewhat demonic look. Although the whole group may be enough to take her on, the sight of her was still enough to have them startled.

Meanwhile, Crabbe and Goyle realized they didn't have their wands anymore, so they searched for them. But before they found them, a green light found them before they did. That light picked up the wands, and flew it to wherever that light came from.

"Friends of yours?" the Green Lantern asked Potter, while he kept the wands in the light of his technological ring.

"Oh well, isn't this great?" Kamon started, "It's just like the days of the Program, isn't it, Kitano-kun?"

Kitano didn't show any sign of it, but he agreed: "You people want to destroy our Republic? Then we will destroy you!"


	12. Chapter 12

As a response to Kitano's outburst, everyone from his party started to fight. Unfortunately for him, neither he or Kamon knew who or what he had before him. The sedative that was used on Katie had worn off, so she could use her full strength, which was enough to throw some of her attackers into the air. Even if there were any among them who knew any martial arts, none of it helped them. The same went for Potter, who used his wand to create some kind of force that would thrust everyone a few meters backward. The Green Lantern used his ring's energy to stun his attackers, allowing him to sweep the floor with them.

Meanwhile, Crabbe and Goyle, who have relied too much on their wands in their recent years, didn't particularly know what to do with their fists when they were confronted with their common acquaintance, as well as two new people. Nepomucenos, in turn, usually let other people do all the physical exercise for him, so he didn't know what to do either. Luckily for them, their Japanese clients were too busy to fight off Potter, Katie and the Green Lantern. This was when Nepomucenos saw his chance.

"Come on, we better go." Nepomucenos told them.

"But what about our wands?" Crabbe asked him.

"We can't help you without them." Goyle added.

"If you decided to get yourselfs a brain before a wand, you wouldn't have lost your wands!" Nepomucenos exclaimed, "Now go!"

All three of them turned around, only to be facing Keiko.

"Going somewhere?" she asked them.

After she asked that question to them, something grabbed Crabbe and Goyle from behind. Surprised, Nepomucenos turned to see what happened, only to see that his two companions were suspended in mid-air, being held up with... nothing. Nepomucenos appeared surprised, which was the exact moment when he heard a click and felt something being pushed into the back of his neck. Judging from the sound and the feel, he knew that somebody held a gun to him.

"It's over now, Nepomi... Nepimo..." Keiko started, although she had trouble remembering the name, "It's over, Neppy."

This was when Nepomucenos looked amused: "You think so?"

Both Keiko and Caine noticed that Nepomucenos's voice changed. He didn't even have his accent anymore. Nepomucenos turned, only to start pulling on the skin of his face and tore it off, only to reveal another face beneath it. It didn't take long before anyone realized the man had pulled off his mask, but the surprise of realizing that this man wasn't who he said he was, was enough to have them distracted, which the impostor used to his advantage to start running. Caine did not hesitate for one second, so he dropped Crabbe and Goyle and started running after the impostor. Unfortunately, Keiko didn't hesitate either, so she started shooting at the impostor. She shot twice, but it was the second shot that caused her to hear Caine shout in agony. She stopped shooting then. She realized that, since she couldn't see Caine, she had no way of knowing whether he was in front of her gun or not, so she accidentally shot him.

With Crabbe and Goyle released from Caine, they both realized just one thing.

"You reckon it's time to go?" Crabbe asked Goyle.

Goyle nodded, and both started running.

"Petrificus totalles!" they heard someone shout.

This caused Goyle to suddenly freeze and fall down. Seeing this, Crabbe didn't know what to do. Even if any idea of what to do came to him, something jumped him. He didn't know what it was, but it sounded as though it growled as it kept him nailed to the ground.

Meanwhile, the impostor had almost made it to his boat. He was only a few meters away from it, when he suddenly forgot where he had put his feet and fell down. When he looked at his feet, he noticed that it wasn't his own clumsiness that tripped him, but a green light that had formed some sort of a lasso, which grabbed his feet and made him fall. He followed the green light's trajectory, and found its source: the Green Lantern.

"You people never know when it's over, do you." the Green Lantern remarked.

Thic caused the impostor to laugh out loud: "Neither do you!"

The Green Lantern looked surprised: "What does that mean?"

"You think it's over with taking me in?" he asked him, "You're more naive than I thought!"


	13. Chapter 13

L's room:

On his computer screen, L could see the group in their room. Well, at least four of them, as Caine was sent to the hospital. These four, for as far as they were concerned, thought that L was too busy interrogating the people they caught, so they didn't know whether or not L was listening to their conversations.

"I am growing weary of this drug case." Katie hissed.

"Why? You think I made up what that guy said?" the Green Lantern asked her, "I want to get this thing over with as soon as possible myself, so I'd have these magicians off my back."

"Magicians?" Potter sounded angered, "You think that what we do are some simple tricks?"

The Green Lantern merely sighed at that, while Keiko replied to him: "But they both bring up excellent points. Two of those thugs we caught were wizards like yourself. How do we know you're not setting this whole thing up?"

"How could I be part of this?" Potter defended himself, "I didn't even know of this drug syndicate until L mentioned it to me."

"Or so you say." Keiko replied.

"I know you feel bad about shooting Mr. Caine, but don't take that out on me." Potter told her.

As they continued on, Mello drew L's attention: "L, I think these people might want to hear this."

L nodded, after which Mello spoke through the microphone: "I just finished interrogating these people."

"What did they say?" the Green Lantern asked.

"As you're probably aware by now, Japan used to be part of the Republic of Greater East Asia." Mello explained, "But since their last Program, those who survived their game started a movement in America against the Republic, and as a response, so did many of the Republic's citizens. So it split up, and every country returned to their original states. Unfortunately, not everyone agreed to this result, and most government officials still don't trust the western world."

"So these Japanese clients wanted that drug, hoping they could use it to start all over again." the Green Lantern deduced.

"What I want to know is..." Potter started, "... how did Crabbe and Goyle get mixed up in all this?"

"They were the easiest ones to interrogate actually." Mello told him, "It seems like they were approached by this guy, who introduced himself as 'Niemand'."

"Niemand?" Keiko sounded confused.

"It's an alias, of course. It is also Dutch for 'nobody'." Mello explained, "But as I was saying, this Niemand told them they could be part of something much larger. So he persuated them to talk to their parents, who knew some people, who know some people,... who knew about the security measures of the Ministry of Magic, so they could go in and steal whatever they needed."

"And how did they know they could find Panoramix's formula?" Potter asked.

"They didn't." Mello answered, "They were looking for whatever may be useful. They must've thought this potion was somehow helpful for their cause."

"Which is?" they all asked, almost in unison.

"Crabbe and Goyle don't know, and Niemand wouldn't say." Mello answered, "However, we did manage to let him slip another name. A doctor named Igor Mortis."

"Igor Mortis?" Katie sounded amused by the sound of that name.

"You know him?" Potter asked her.

"No." Katie replied, "But don't you think it sounds a lot like..."

"We made a few cross-references..." Mello interrupted, "... and it seemed like both Niemand and Igor Mortis have often been associated with a mob boss, known as Sardonis."

Everyone shrugged at the sound of that name, but it was the Green Lantern who spoke: "Never heard of him."

"If you haven't kept up with the news of what was happening in Belgium during the eighties, I wouldn't expect you to know him." Mello replied, "Or even this Nepomucenos."

"You mean that masked guy?" Katie asked.

"That masked man was Niemand, in disguise." Mello answered, "He was replacing the real Nepomucenos."

"But who is this Nepo..." Keiko tried to ask, but could never quite remember his name.

"Nepomucenos was a Greek TV-producer." Mello explained, "He tried starting his own TV-broadcasting stations, with which he hoped to embezzle huge amounts of money."

"And he's an associate of this..." the Green Lantern tried to remember the name, "... Sardines?"

"Sardonis." Mello corrected him, "And I am not sure. Although both have had their base of operations in Ravenburg, both even had Lowie Vervoort as their henchman, but for as far as we know, they never banded together. However, since they both ended up in the same prison, it is possible that they met and talked to each other, befriended each other, and even plotted together, about what they'll do once they got out of prison."

As he was explaining everything to the four, L noticed Near had started interrogating Crabbe and Goyle.

"Let me get back to you." L spoke into the microphone before disconnecting it.

"Hey!" Mello exclaimed, "I wasn't done yet!"

"I know." L said, "But until we know more details, we shouldn't give away that much."

"But it looks like Mello was right." Near explained, "From what these two just told me, I got a list of names of other people they've met. They don't know all of their full names, however looking at the list of known assiciates to both Sardonis and Nepomucenos, and seeing all the names they mentioned, Jean-Jacques, Sam Foeter, Serafijn, Staf, Muller, Lowie,... either they do work together, or at least Nepomucenos has got Sardonis' henchmen on his side now."

"Any of these men your inside man?" L asked him.

"I am not sure." Near answered, "Although they did mention there was some kind of assistant to Dr. Mortis. Someone who's helping him making this drug. They don't know who he is, as they've never seen him."

"Have you asked them where their hide-out is?" Mello asked him.

"I have." Near answered, "But they were always blindfolded when they were brought there. They must've thought that Crabbe and Goyle are much likely to snitch on their bosses, deliberately or not."

On L's screen, he got a notice that told him he received a message. He quickly read the message: "It's from the hospital. That warthog and rhinoceros are about to wake up. This could be in our advantage. Unlike Crabbe and Goyle, these two were by themselves. Which means that they know where their hide-out is and how to go there."

"They've been shot, they won't be able to go anywhere." Mello said.

"Maybe." L said, "But since they're criminals, they wouldn't want to stay at the same spot for too long either. So they'll have enough incentive to go to their hide-out, no matter what condition they are in."

"To bad our task-force is now one man short." Near said, "Hopefully our inside man will be of some help."

"Better let them know what we want them to do." L spoke, in reference to said task-force.


	14. Chapter 14

Duckburg Hospital:

In a hospital where the owner is a dog, and most of the employers are ducks, even having patients resembling a rhinoceros or a warthog are unusual. Generally, their patients are what humans would consider of the domesticated type, not something you'd find in the wild. Still, the two had bulletwounds, so they needed help. Little did they know who or what they kept alive. Nor did they know what to do if and when they woke up.

The rhinoceros slowly opened his eyes. Although he didn't know the room he was in, anyone would easily recognize a hospital room when they saw one. He felt pain all over his body, but certain experiences he had back in New York had seen to it that he can take physical pain very well, even if it were as severe as bullet wounds. He got up as best as he could. Once he was up, he could see the bed next to him, where he found his patner in crime, the warthog.

"Bebop!" he called at him, but the warthog, Bebop, didn't respond, "Aw come on. You don't remember your ol' buddy Rocksteady?"

Since Bebop still wouldn't reply, the rhinoceros, Rocksteady, decided to just pick him up and carry him out of the hospital. Just as he picked him up, one of the nurses entered. She was shocked to see him trying to get out, but being as caring as she is, she tried to talk him out of it.

"I'm sorry sir, but he needs to rest." she said, "And so do..."

She couldn't finish, as that's when Rocksteady charged at her, crushing her. Despite his strength, this merely caused the nurse to be flattened against a wall like a pancake, but the blinking of her eyes showed that she was still alive.

"A stupid duck like you won't stop me." Rocksteady spoke.

He left the room and ran through the corridor, disregarding everyone who stood in his way.

Outside the hospital, unknown to Rocksteady, people were waiting for him. Surveillance camera's were under L's control, Potter was watching while wearing his invisibility cloack, Katie was reading a newspaper and inconspicuously watching over it, Keiko was using a phone booth, and the Green Lantern... nobody trully knew, as he said he'd be walking around without his suit and mask, so nobody, not even his teammates, would recognize him. So they were there when Rocksteady, carrying Bebop on his back, stormed out of the hospital and ran away as fast as he could.

L and his companions could see this through the surveillance camera's.

"He knew he wouldn't stick out, much, in this city, yet he doesn't know how to be subtle." Mello remarked.

"In panic, even a smarter person is more prone to make mistakes." Near said, "After all, it's been three days since they haven't seen their boss."

Back on the field, Potter could use his invisibility cloack to his advantage to run after Bebop and Rocksteady, without anyone noticing. Or so he thought, as he kept bumping in on people on the way, which raised too many eyebrows. Katie didn't have that problem, but since she has the strength of a demon, her bumping in on people didn't have the same effect as when Potter does it, making it even more difficult for even Keiko to run through the streets.

Rocksteady kept running, still completely disregarding his surroundings. His thought was that, since the city was filled with humanoid animals such as himself, him doing the things he does wouldn't raise many questions. At least, not as much as it would if it happened in any other city. Also, since he had a friend that wouldn't wake up, he couldn't act a little more subtle if he wanted to. So he kept running. Until something landed in his path, raised its fist towards him, and before he even hit the fist, he already fell. It was as though some kind of force came from the fist that stopped him. Once he was down, he recognized who stopped him.

"You're friend was shot in the head, and you would take him out of the hospital?" the Green Lantern spoke, "How is that supposed to help him?"

"You don't understand." Rocksteady replied, "We were supposed to return to our boss after our deal. You don't know what he'd do to us if we don't return."

"You've been gone for three days and he hasn't made a move." the Green Lantern told them.

"We have?" Rocksteady didn't know that.

"Looks like your boss thinks you're expendable." the Green Lantern told him, "You really want to work for someone like that?"

"Now that you're saying that, I wonder if he was even planning to pay us." Rocksteady replied, "But... if we don't get paid, how's Bebop supposed to..."

"I know somebody who can finance your friend's recovery." the Green Lantern told him.

This surprised Rocksteady, but the Green Lantern wasn't finished: "Just tell me where we can find your boss, and I'm sure he'll do exactly that for you.

Feeling somewhat betrayed, Rocksteady told the Green Lantern what he wanted to hear: "It's a place called... Fort Boggart, or something. It used to be a prison, somewhere in some European sea."

This made little sense to the Green Lantern, but if he relayed this information to L, he'd find out more soon enough.


	15. Chapter 15

"You really shouldn't have made those promises you made with that rhinoceros." L complained after he heard back from his team.

"I only told him I know somebody who can help him." the Green Lantern replied, "But if you're not helping him, how does that make you better than the people you're fighting against?"

L sighed, just when Keiko asked him: "Anyway, do you have anything on what he said?"

"Yes." L replied, "When he said Fort Boggart, he meant Fort Boyard. It's an old prison in the Mediterranean."

"Of course." Keiko snorted, "The last place we'd look for a criminal is a prison."

"You'd almost think that these big criminals have some kind of... obsession with being locked up." Katie hissed.

"Well now..." Potter started, "... Green Lantern, what you did back there, stopping that beast from causing any more harm, and getting information from him... I'd say you've proven yourself to be worthy of..."

"Are you relieving me already?" the Green Lantern interrupted, "In the middle of it all, before we even got this Sardines?"

"Sardonis." L corrected him.

"This Sardonis?" Green Lantern continued, "You must be out of your mind."

"Am I?" Potter replied, "I didn't know I could... oh, sarcasm."

Behind his mask, the Green Lantern raised an eyebrow. Potter must have spend so much time among wizards, he can't recognize common expressions anymore.

"I sent all the necessary information to that palmtop again, so you should be able to find Fort Boyard before the end of the day."

"Finally, we'll get this over with." Katie said.

Meanwhile, at Fort Boyard, the real Nepomucenos was in a room, sitting next to a bed, where a man was lying down, who had tubes attached to his arm and a breather-mask on his face. At that time, Nepomucenos was pacing the room, making the man in bed nervous.

"Will you..." pauses for coughing, "... stop pacing like that!"

"I am sorry, Mr. Sardonis." Nepomucenos replied, "But first we lost Bebop and Rocksteady, and now Niemand, Crabbe and Goyle haven't returned. It's like somebody's on to us and already taking us all out."

The man, Sardonis laughed, though his health (and coughs) wouldn't allow him to cough for very long: "You... idiot. Why should you... worry about that? Soon, Dr Mortis has finished the better potion, and when I drink of it, nothing can stop me."

"How can you be so confident of that?" Nepomucenos asked.

"Because whoever..." Sardonis replied, "... is trying to catch me, can't be as... much of a genius as I am."

Nepomucenos was about to ask that if Sardonis were such a genius, how could he have ever been caught, but decided against it.

This is when the door opened. A tall man in a black suit with white stripes entered.

"Boss." he said, "Dr Mortis lets me know his potion is perfected and is ready to test it.

Sardonis coughed a few times before he could reply: "Wonderful... Sam, let him come over here. I'll test it."

"You?" the man, Sam, hesitated, "But boss, what if..."

"Even if it doesn't work..." Sardonis got agitated, which only worsened his cough, "... I'll take my chances."

Sam shrugged and left the room.

As Sam shut the door behind him when he left, he met with one of his associates. A man half his own size, who may be mistaken for a young child if it wasn't for his beard.

"What happened in there?" the little man asked.

"The boss wants to take the potion now." Sam answered, "He doesn't even care if it doesn't work, Lowie."

"Ah." was all that the little man, Lowie, could say.

As Sardonis awaited for the doctor to give him his potion, Sardonis thought back about how this all started. He remembered when he started his little mob, he had many great plans to become the world's most powerful man. Unfortunately, there was one detective agency that always stood in his way. It was that same agency that got him jailed in the first place, and got him sentenced for twenty years. And for a man of his age, twenty years in jail meant that he will die in the prison cell. Which he didn't, but since he got out, age was still getting the best of him. Breathing became more difficult with each passing day, he could barely stand on his own legs, and can't move many of his muscles. Luckily, with the help of his old contacts, as well as new ones from jail (like Nepomucenos), he was able to stay somewhere underground, so when the day comes that he dies, the press won't know about it. Even though he wouldn't live for long anymore, the thought that the world will be relieved of his demise was what frightened him near death. But even with these precautions, it still didn't make his situation any better, until his old associate came with an idea. He told him about the old legend of Astérix, which mentioned a potion, that had all his interests. He had somehow become aware of some kind of underground world, where wizards still existed, and speculated that if the formula to this potion still existed, it would be in that underground world. Hearing this made Sardonis realize that if he had this potion himself, it would help him regain his strength. Unfortunately, this potion is known to have temporary effects, but Mortis would try and find a way to make its effects permanent. But to be able to finance all the equipment, Sardonis and Mortis had agreed to make the potion as it was originally written down, and sell it to the people as if it were a drug that people needed. The same would go with any newer version of the drug. Only the one with ever-lasting effects would be for Sardonis himself.

What Sardonis didn't know, was that Nepomucenos had some plans of his own. The only reason he stuck close to Sardonis, was because if and when the potion was finished, he would take it for himself, and become the strongest and most powerful man in the world. This way, not even that underground organisation that stopped him before, or any such organisation, would dare to face and stop him.


	16. Chapter 16

At his lab, Dr. Mortis was finishing up some final tests with the potion he just made. He looked at his watch, after which he turned to his assistant: "It's been an hour since we last checked my bonzai. Go check it again."

The assistant did as he was told. He grabbed a small pair of scissors and headed to a small bonzai tree, which Mortis kept in his lab. He tried to clip off one of its leaves, but this caused the scissors to break apart.

"Still going strong." the assistant spoke, although he almost sounded as though he growled.

"Excellent." Mortis replied, while he looked at a phial, which held some kind of greenish yellow liquid, "That's altogether twenty-four hours this potion lasted. I think I finally perfected it."

"That's good." the assistant hissed, as he slowly turned to Mortis, "So my assistance ends here."

"What does that mean?" Mortis couldn't understand.

"The best part of my job..." the assistant continued, "... is that I don't need to explain myself to someone like you."

"Your job?" Mortis didn't understand at first, but he did soon enough realize that the assistant wasn't entirely who he said he was. In that same split second that he realized as much, the assistant jumped and attacked Mortis, and a fight broke out.

This fight, however, distracted both of them, to a point where neither realized that a third person sneaked into the lab, and snatched the phial with the greenish yellow liquid.

As this fight rages, L's group was arriving at Fort Boyard. As they landed, one of the henchmen, namely Sam started to give orders: "You better take care of them, I'll go alert the boss!"

Though reluctantly, they nodded, while Sam ran away. As he started running, Potter landed in front of him.

"Going somewhere?" he asked.

Sam tried to run away, but Potter only needed to point his wand at him, say the magic word, and Sam would fly back a few feet.

Other than Sam, there was one guy with a moustache and a scar on his face, who thought he was a match for Katie. It wasn't until she showed her demonic face that he realized the error of his ways.

There was one guy, who was somewhat older than the others, and seemed somewhat dimwittier than them as well. When facing Keiko, he raised his fists rather clumsily. Keiko could not understand how anyone would think he was the man to hire for anything. Keiko barely had to lay a hand on him, and he was already down.

The Green Lantern faced someone in a jumpsuit. He too was dimwitted, but at least somewhat more confident of himself. The Green Lantern didn't think he was worth spending any energy from his rings on, so all he did was point behind him, say "what's that", causing him to look behind him, and knock him out.

"Looks like they hire the big boys for outside, leaving the weaker ones to guard the castle." the Green Lantern remarked.

"Or they simply didn't expect anyone would find them here." Potter deduced.

"Makes you wonder why they hired two goons who'd betray them if the price is right." Keiko wondered.

"Strong or weak..." Katie hissed, "I could eat them all."

"Speaking of which..." the Green Lantern suddenly remembered something, "... wasn't there supposed to be a midget among them?"

"L's info is old." Keiko said, "That midget may have used to work for both Sardonis and that Greek guy, but that doesn't mean he still does."

Meanwhile, Sardonis' health, or lack thereof was at its peak.

"I..." he coughed, "I... can't wait... any longer."

Nepomucenos knew this was his moment: "I'll go fetch Dr. Mortis."

He got up to leave, but that's when the door opened before he even touched the knob.

Nepomucenos recognized the man who opened the door before he did: "Lowie?"

Lowie, the "midget" that the Green Lantern was referring to earlier, entered the room: "I must say Igor Mortis has outdone himself this time."

"Yes, yes..." Nepomucenos said, "But we need him now. Where is he?"

"He's in his lab, fighting his assistant." Lowie replied, flatly.

This is when neither Nepomucenos or Sardonis knew what was going on, so Sardonis asked: "What... what do you... mean?"

"Don't play games now!" Nepomucenos was about to smack Lowie on the head.

Just before his hand hit Lowie's head, the latter stopped it and pushed Nepomucenos away, to the other side of the room. He seemed to have quite a lot of strength for someone his size, one would almost say that he drank some of this potion himself. Which was also the conclusion that both Sardonis and Nepomucenos had drawn.

"Lowie, what is the meaning of this?" Sardonis demanded to know.

"Never again shall anyone treat me like a child!" Lowie shouted, before he ran to them for his attack.


	17. Chapter 17

The commotion that Lowie started in his bosses' room caused loud enough noises for L's team to hear.

"What's going on?" Potter wondered.

"You know, I heard of people experimenting with many formulas..." Katie hissed, "... they always ended up making monsters."

"Now you're telling us?" Keiko said.

"There's only one way for us to find out what that is." the Green Lantern said, "Let's look."

He started running, and the others followed. Their run didn't last long, as suddenly they heard a loud crash, as though a wall was just torn down.

"Okay, I'm beginning to believe you, Katie." Potter said.

"It sounded like it came..." Keiko started and pointed, "... that way."

The hall had no doors, so if they were to check out the noise, they'd either have to destroy the wall, or find their way around it.

"Trying to find a way there will take too long." Keiko said, "Hold on one moment."

She raised some of her guns, pointed it to the wall and started shooting. The bullets got stuck in the wall, but nothing really broke. Katie thought of trying to bash her way through, but couldn't do enough damage. Potter tried some of his magic, but although it caused more damage, it too didn't do enough.

"I see what they mean when they say they don't built them like they used to." Katie remarked.

"This is hopeless." Potter said.

"Maybe not." the Green Lantern said, as he seemed to be fumbling with his magical ring.

"Yeah?" Keiko sounded surprised, "We're not seeing you try anything."

On the other side of the wall, there's a courtyard. Here, we find Lowie, who had just discovered how he can break a whole wall with his own bare hands now. This is when he heard guns being fired, and other noises as though others, too, were trying to tear down a wall. It meant two things. One, there are intruders. Two, if they have that much trouble getting through, they won't be much of a problem to him. Out of curiosity, Lowie layed his ear on the wall, to listen what else these intruders would try in order to break through. He didn't hear much all of a sudden, but he knew they'd try something else soon. This is when there was a very strange sound which he couldn't place. He backed up, only to see a hand come out of the wall. He thought at first that at least one of the intruders was strong enough to punch through walls, but he realized that the wall didn't break when the hand came out, as though this person could walk through walls. After the hand, an arm wearing a green sleeve followed. This is when an entire body, of a man in a black suit and green coat (as well as green mask) came through, dragging three others with him. Once they were through, the four of them fell down.

"Sorry, I never tried this with more than one person before." the Green Lantern apologized.

"When were you planning on telling us that?" Keiko whined.

"Ah..." Katie immediately spotted Lowie, "... there's your midget, Lantern."

"Midget?" Lowie sounded infuriated.

"Ooooh..." Katie seemed amused, "I seem to have hit a nerve there."

Lowie got ready to run, while Katie kept antagonizing him: "Come on, bring i..."

She couldn't finish her sentence, because Lowie had run as fast as he could and punched her very hard, causing her to fly away.

"Oh boy." the Green Lantern spoke, "I take it you took the potion?"

Lowie grinned: "Well, I'm surprised you're aware that we're making potions here rather than drugs. Not that it matters."

Potter immediately tried "sectumsempra", but although it seemed to have cut him, it wasn't quite as deep as it would have been with anyone else, and neither did it seem to slow him down. He started towards Potter, trying to punch the wand out of his hands. Keiko tried helping him by shooting Lowie, but he was fast enough to dodge the bullets. While he couldn't take the wand away, at least he could punch Potter in the stomach, immobilizing him. He ran to Keiko, but the Green Lantern used his rings to stop him. Lowie somehow managed to break free of the rings' grip, before Keiko could fire her guns. Lowie kicked the guns out of her hands and broke them with his bare hands. The Green Lantern tried his rings again, but Lowie kicked his shins, so he couldn't stand up anymore. Katie tried another full on attack, but one hearbutt from Lowie was enough to knock her out.


	18. Chapter 18

No matter what it is that the four did, nothing seemed to stop Lowie. It didn't take long until they were beaten down. Potter tried to use his wand, but it was kicked out of his hand.

"Why won't you just give up already?" Lowie spoke, "I may have been the shortest to my bosses, but neither one could ever truly strike fear into kids. And as we all know, if adults can't scare kids, who are the future of our planet, then what good are they? But someone like me, someone of their size, whom they can easily mistake as a someone of their own age, yet already growing a beard. With my new power, I can take away all the adults and use the kids as slaves!"

"It is people like you that got me to start this." a low voice spoke.

Lowie looked around to see who was talking. In the hole he made in the wall earlier, he saw the one he recognized as Mortis' assistant. The other four looked at him as well. The man wore a grey trenchcoat, a brown hat, and his face seemed to be made of constantly changing inkblots.

"Rorschach?" the Green Lantern seemed to recognize him.

"Rorschach?" the name sounded familiar to Keiko, "Thé Rorschach?"

"Who's Rorschach?" Potter wondered.

Lowie seemed surprised, as he himself had never known what Mortis' assistant was called: "So you do have a name after all."

The assistant, or Rorschach, didn't answer the remark, but he did say: "The only reason I helped you, is because I hoped your doctor could cure me of my ailment. But because of you, that is now taken away from me."

"Well, I can't say that I'm sorry." Lowie laughed.

"Ailment?" the Green Lantern seemed surprised.

"Even superheroes get ill." Katie snickered.

"No matter." Rorschach said, "This will have to do instead."

Rorschach took out a phial, which contained a yellowish green liquid, rather than the greenish yellow one that Lowie drank. He opened it and drank from it.

"You think that'll help you?" Lowie sounded amused, "Any other potion lasted a few hours at most, mine is permanent."

Once Rorschach was done drinking, he replied: "A few seconds is all I'll need with you."

He smashed the phial as he started running. Lowie, not feeling intimidated at all, started towards Rorschach as well. Once they got close enough to fight, they started dealing their punches. With both of them being under the influence of the potion, whatever attack they used seemed useless to both of them. Still, that didn't stop either one from fighting.

Meanwhile, Potter managed to get back up, pick up his wand and say: "Let's go."

"Go?" Keiko wondered, "What about this guy?"

"Doesn't look like he needs our help." Katie hissed.

"And even if he does, I still need to find that formula." Potter said, "It was stolen from our ministry, I should retrieve it."

"Then go." the Green Lantern said, "I'll stay here, in case Rorschach needs help."

"Heroes sticking together..." Katie sighed, "Did that ever work?"

"Sounds like the best we can do." Keiko agreed.

"Good, let's get going." Potter said, as he headed through the hole in the wall, followed by Keiko and Katie.


	19. Chapter 19

The three of them ran as fast as they could, until they stumbled upon an open door. Keiko took a quick into the room.

"Hey Potter, check this out." she called to him.

Potter stopped running, so he too could look inside. In the room, there were pieces of furniture. The type that you can easily put together and dismantle, making them easier for transport. Among them was what could be described as a kitchen table, but judging from the amounts of paper that was on them, as well as writing utensils, it was clearly being used as a desk. Next to it, there was a steel bookcase, where boxes were stored.

"Think they might be keeping it here?" Keiko asked.

"I think so." Potter answered.

"You think so?" Katie seemed angered about this, "It would take hours for us to look through all that, and what if we don't find it?"

Potter raised his wand: "Accio formula!"

At the sound of that, one of the boxes started to shake. Slowly, its lids were opening themselves, and sheets of paper were falling out.

"Of course, hide something that important under something less important so it won't stick out." Potter deduced.

"Wait a minute, you can just... call for it?" Keiko asked.

"If you mean use my summoning charm, that only works if I have an idea of where to find what I'm looking for." Potter explained, "If it wasn't here, nothing would happen."

At some point, the papers fell to the ground, and what looked like an old piece of parchment flew out of the box and headed towards Potter. He stretched out his hand to take it, but that's when something jumped out to catch it before he could.

"Katie?" Potter recognized that which jumped.

Katie didn't reply. Instead she leaped towards them, pushed them down to the floor and ran off.

Potter raised his wand again: "Petrificus totales!"

At the sound of that, Katie stiffened, and like a huge piece of solid rock, she fell to the ground, unable to move a muscle.

"A demon who may find a way to become invincible." Keiko sighed, "Of course she can't lose this one shot."

Potter stepped towards Katie's motionless body. He found the parchment in her hand, took a close look at it and recognized it for what it was: "Found it at last."

He turned to Keiko, only to realize she had gone inside the room. He looked at what she was doing. She searched the desk, but Potter had no idea what she was looking for.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"This was supposed to be an entire syndicate of drug dealers." Keiko answered, "I don't think those goons at the entrance, those clumsy wizzes or those animals are the only ones who worked for them. If I can find a list of all their associates, we can round up the whole syndicate."

Potter seemed to understand: "I wish I could use my summoning charm here, but since I don't know what to look for exactly..."

"Yeah sure." Keiko interrupted, "Magic only works when it's most conveniant to you."

"That was harsh." Potter complained.

Just then, Keiko found a list of names. Some of them seemed familiar to her, but it may as well have been names of targets of execution. But as she went down the list, she did recognize the names of the wizards who helped the fake Nepomucenos before, as well as the names of the warthog and rhinoceros they met in Calisota.

"Found it." Keiko said, "Let's go."

Keiko started running back to where the fight was taking place, but Potter stopped her: "Hey wait! What about Katie?"

"Can't you just undo what you did to her?" Keiko suggested.

"Yes, but would you release a demon after doing... what I just did?" Potter reminded her.

"What, so now we've got to carry her?" Keiko asked.

As this was going on, the battle between Lowie and Rorschach kept raging on. Punches were dealt, kicks were used, but with no immediate winner in sight. That was the case, until one punch in Rorschach's stomach seemed to immobilize him. This pleased Lowie. He tried to deal one final blow, but that's when the Green Lantern intervened. With the power of both his rings, he created a barrier between Lowie and Rorschach.

Lowie turned to the Green Lantern: "It didn't stop me before, what makes you think it will now?"

"I'm just giving him a fighting chance." the Green Lantern responded, "You're using a potion with a permanent effect, while he's using one which clearly doesn't last a few hours as you claimed. That's not what I'd call a fair fight."

"Fair!" Lowie exclaimed, "Everywhere I'd go, I was the easiest target for everyone. Just because I was shorter, people would easily pick a fight with me, sooner than with someone of their own size."

"So you become one of them?" the Green Lantern questioned.

"I don't need to hear anything from you!" Lowie shouted, as he ran away from Rorschach and towards the Green Lantern.

While they were discussing what they were discussing, Rorschach had already figured out what it was that really made the fight difficult for him. The ailment he referred to earlier, was the fact that, because of an old associate of his, the super-powered Dr. Manhattan, he had gained some of Manhattan's powers. Powers that gave him strength beyond anything he can imagine, that allowed him to do things he never could before. Still, he thought that having one Dr. Manhattan in this world was bad enough, he doesn't think the world needs two of them. He tried looking for the right kind of doctor who might be able to help him. Eventually he came across Igor Mortis, a type of person that some would consider to be a mad scientist. Once he got into Mortis' service, and found out about his work on some kind of formula that, basically, changes the body structure into something a less fragile, he thought it may somehow help his cells fight off that bit of Dr. Manhattan inside him. Unfortunately, Rorschach only had a less effective version of the potion in his system, and that in combination with Manhattan's powers, was causing an instability that hurts his body, which distracted him. Having already experienced an explosion once before in his life, he knew exactly what was about to happen to his body. Rorschach noticed how the Green Lantern was helping him in this difficult situation, and realized that he had little to no chance to fight his adversary.

The Green Lantern had lowered the barrier that kept the two separated, hoping to use his rings against Lowie, which gave Rorschach a chance to jump the little man. Holding him down, Rorschach seemed to start glowing up. Lowie didn't know what that was about, but he knew that it couldn't be good. He tried to run, but Rorschach kept him in his grip.

"Use your shield!" he shouted to the Green Lantern.

"What?" the Green Lantern was confused.

"Just do it!" Rorschach persisted, "Use your shield on us!"

The Green Lantern was still unsure, but he could pressume that Rorschach knew what he was doing. With his technological ring, he allowed a force shield to surround both Rorschach and Lowie. It was then that Rorschach seemed to explode. It can be assumed that that explosion killed Lowie, but that wasn't the first thing that came to the Green Lantern's mind. He was having some difficulty keeping his shield steady, he needed to add the strength of his magical ring.

This is when the other three have returned to the battle ground. If Katie could move, she would show as much astonishment as Keiko and Potter did at the sight of... whatever it was they were looking at. As far as they could tell, the Green Lantern was keeping some kind of fireball under control, but they had no idea what it was or where it came from.

"What is that thing?" Potter asked.

"And what happened to Rorschach and that midget?"

"They're in there!" the Green Lantern exclaimed.

Neither one understood. Keiko was about to ask more questions, but the Green Lantern had his own things to say: "You guys better go."

"Go?" Potter asked, "But what about..."

"Look, I don't know how long I can contain this..." the Green Lantern interrupted, "... or how powerful this explosion will be. But if you value your life..."

"We can't leave you here." Potter reasoned, "Let us..."

"I don't want another life weighing on me!" the Green Lantern interrupted, "Let alone three more!"

"Another?" Potter sounded surprised.

"Softy." Keiko snorted.

That cynical remark of hers helped Potter realize something else: "But we can't get out. Not without him carrying her."

That was something Keiko hadn't thought of before. But then she realized something else: "If these people would come to and from the island, wouldn't they have some means of transport?"

This made sense to Potter: "You're right. They must have a boat docked here."

"Then let's get going." Keiko was about ready to lift up Katie's body.

"But we still can't leave him here." Potter persisted.

"You heard the man." Keiko reminded him, "He doesn't want to risk killing us. So unless you've got some kind of death wish..."

Potter thought about it. He could help the Green Lantern, but if it means risking his life, and thereby risking his children to lose a father, it would mean that they'd go through the same thing that he himself had to live through, which was something he couldn't allow to happen. He made up his mind.

"Wait." Potter said, as he raised his wand, used another charm, and Katie could move again.

Once she could move again, she immediately jumped Potter, clenching her hands around his neck to strangle him.

Keiko cut in between: "You can kill him on your own time. Right now, we should run for our lives."

Although she wants to get back at Potter for doing what he did, she realized she would only be wasting her time, so she let go and went along with them.

Meanwhile, the Green Lantern was having more trouble containing the explosion. He didn't know anything about how the potion was made, or why it caused the effect on Rorschach that it seemed to have, but for some reason the explosion still wouldn't calm down, which drained a lot of energy from his rings. The best he could do was to extend the field he created, so the explosion wouldn't be so packed up, releaving some of the strain that it was putting the rings through. Unfortunately, this caused the entire building to shake.

The shaking woke up Sardonis' and Nepomucenos' associates, just when Potter, Keiko and Katie were returning to them. They were afraid they fight them again, but instead they got a warning.

"Run for your life!" Potter shouted.

A first reaction would have been a question what they're running for, but the heavy quakes they were feeling gave them an idea of why. They started running, inadvertedly leading other three to the only way off the island.

As that was going on, the Green Lantern couldn't hold on any longer. He stopped casting out the force shield, allowing the explosion to escape.

Everyone else made it to the boat and headed into the sea, just in time to see Fort Boyard explode, and crumble down.

"There goes our bosses." Sam remarked.

"Now what do we do?" another one of the associates asked.

They had started their own little conversation, while the other three had some of their own things to deal with.

"He really didn't have to do this." Potter started, "I mean, I know he wanted to prove himself to be worthy of carrying that ring, but..."

"Well, that's superheroes for you." Keiko remarked dryly, "Never put themselves first. No preservation of themselves. Wonder how they can survive even one day on this world."

"By the way, Potter..." Katie started to hiss.

"Petrificus totales!" Potter said as he pointed his wand to her.


	20. Chapter 20

L's room: Februari 2nd, 2011:

From his room, L and his gang was in direct contact with both Keiko, who was in the secret room, and Caine, who was still in the hospital. Keiko had only just sent the list of associates that she recovered from Fort Boyard. L, in turn, sent it to his companion's computers, and to Caine.

"They were organized." Mello remarked, "But too stupid to hire these people."

"It almost looks like Sardonis was desperate." Near remarked.

"At least they didn't employ the world's most wanted." L said.

"Who do you mean?" Near asked.

"This list useful to you?" Keiko asked, interrupting their conversation.

L answered: "It should'nt be too difficult to find and apprehend these people."

"Even more so, now that we've got that comedic duo on our side now." Caine added.

"Great." Keiko didn't sound too excited, "So now I'm working for one-letter-name, along with a man I can't see, one guy with horns and... no woman has ever put this as accurate as I'm about to, but one pig."

"But unfortunately without our inside man." Mello remarked, "Who'd have thought it that it was Rorschach, of all people?"

"Of all the Watchmen, he was the most psychotic one." Near said, "But I didn't think he'd ever consider working for the bad guys, even if it were for the greater good."

"Keiko-san." L started, "You see what you can find out about these people."

"Can't you give me the money you owe me first?" Keiko asked him.

"Take a look at your bank account and then ask me that again." L responded, after disconnecting communications with her.

St. Mungo's Hospital:

Still petrified, Katie got transported into a room, where all sort of jinxes were cast before the spell was cast out of her so she could move again. Still being the wild demon, she tried running out of the room, but as she tried running through the door, it was like she hit an electric fence, causing her a great deal of pain, so she was forced to remain where she was. Some expected she would be angry, perhaps sad, so the surprise was great when she was snickering instead.

"I knew L wouldn't keep his end of the bargain." she hissed.

Ministry of Magic:

Potter was writing his report. In it, he described the events that had happened to him in the past few days. How a mere muggle was able to persuade two wizards to find their way inside the Ministry, steal the formula for Cattafix/Panoramix his magic potion, and especially mentioned how he witnessed the Green Lantern do everything that needed to be done in order to retreive the formula, and save the world. Under these circumstances, the Ministry would allow the Green Lantern to keep using the magic ring, making it unfortunate that he can't enjoy the freedom he has just been granted.

Mediterranean Sea:

Following the explosion, boats and helicopters were sent out to search the remains of Fort Boyard. One body, that judging from its size must have been that of a kid, was found burnt to a crisp. It was next to impossible to fish it out, as the slightest touch made it fall apart. Other bodies belonged to two men, who were torn apart. Whatever killed them, it was quickly deduced that they were dead before the explosion. Finding these three bodies in itself was already a miracle, seeing as it was already night, making it more difficult to find any body, dead or alive.

At some point, one of the sailors on one of the boats called for attention: "Captain!"

His captain responded: "What is it?"

"Look at that!" the sailor pointed somewhere.

The captain sighed: "How am I supposed to know what to look at if..."

"Just look!" the sailor interrupted.

The captain couldn't understand it, so he was more than a little frustrated to turn and look anyway. Doing so, he saw a flickering green light.

"All hands, go check!" the captain ordered.

They sailed to the source of the green light, where they found two extra bodies. One of them had something on his hand that caused the light they saw. They fished both of the men out. Upon closer inspection, they saw that all the man had on his hand was a ring, that bore some kind of mark that resembled a lantern. The other man had a strange grey face, that rather than having eyes, a nose and a mouth, it had one huge inkblot for a face. The ship's doctor examined the two and found that they both still had beating hearts and were hyperthermic.

The man with the inkblot face, Rorschach, had a guess about how he survived this. As the mixture of his powers and that of the potion was too unstable that it became an explosion, it gave him a chance to fight the powers out of his body. In leaving his body, it became a shield that protected him. But much like any power, it too was being drained just for protecting him. Not that it mattered to him. He has returned to being the Rorschach he was before. More so, since his own reasembling of his own body had given him the opportunity to create his own face, so he wouldn't need to wear that mask anymore.

The Green Lantern, in turn, held up the explosion as much as he could. When he couldn't hold up any longer, he let go, and used whatever little power he still had left to generate a shield around himself, protecting him from the explosion. Unfortunately it was only enough to keep him from feeling the full blast, so it still knocked him out cold. It wasn't until much later that he heard boats and helicopters look for him, which gave his technological ring enough time to recharge, so he could send out a signal for these people to find him.

**THE END**


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